This invention relates to a transmission device as well as an automotive vehicle that is equipped with such a transmission device.
It relates more particularly to a transmission device for an automotive vehicle of the type that comprises, mounted on an output shaft that is formed by at least two wheel drive half-shafts of a vehicle that are mounted to freely rotate one relative to the other, at least one rotary part, of the pinion or wheel type, called a rotary gearwheel, and two clutch mechanisms that are arranged on both sides of the gearwheel, whereby each clutch mechanism of a wheel drive half-shaft with the gearwheel is a clutch sleeve mechanism that comprises clutch sleeve teeth that are arranged on the parts opposite the gearwheel or a part that is integral in rotation with the gearwheel, and a part, such as a sleeve or a ring, that is mounted to move axially and integrally in rotation with said wheel drive half-shaft, whereby said part, called moving clutch sleeve, is equipped with return means in a position in which the moving clutch sleeve teeth come to be housed between two clutch sleeve teeth called the first and second teeth of the gearwheel to make possible a transmission of movement between the gearwheel and the drive half-shafts.
Such transmission devices are increasingly equipped with freewheeling mechanisms that make it possible, in particular for the outside wheel of the vehicle, in cornering, to rotate at a higher speed than the inside wheel. These freewheeling mechanisms that are generally automatically activated during a difference in rotational speed between the moving clutch sleeve and the gearwheel should have an extremely simple design all the while preventing simultaneous freewheeling of the two wheels of the vehicle, for example during a downgrade to prevent any risk of an accident, in particular in the case of a mower or a snowplow.